Page 18 of Wilder

“You know how to spin?”

“I think so.”

“Okay.”

Lexi wasn’t sure why she was even entertaining his suggestions. He was a complete stranger to her. She should have just said she didn’t have the time and gone to her office.

Apparently, she was missing interaction with others more than she had realized. She’d just assumed because she’d had no friends beyond Mik and her coaches that she didn’t need friendships. Maybe what shedidn’tneed wasa lotof friends, and what shedidneed was a small circle of close friendships.

Not that she planned to start up a friendship with someone like Wilder. She’d heard about Wilder even before meeting him, since Trev had mentioned him when he told her about the members of the recreation department.

He was only in Serenity for the winter ski season, then he was off flitting around the world for the rest of the year. Definitely not what she needed in a friend.

After discussing the number of rotations needed before they could skate, she and Wilder took up their positions. At his prompt, they began to spin.

Lexi quickly finished her rotations and set off down the ice. She’d rounded the short end of the ice just as Wilder finished his spin. He definitely looked a little wobbly as he tried to pick up some speed. She lapped him, then turned backwards, watching as he finally found his footing.

They had only planned on one lap, so she’d already won, but she could tell by the gleam in his eyes that he wasn’t going to stop after just a single lap. Turning, she put on a burst of speed, her thigh muscles burning with the sudden demand.

Unfortunately, Wilder had regained his equilibrium and made quick work of passing her. He beat her back to their starting point and was waiting with yet another broad grin on his face.

“I won,” she announced, because she really couldn’t bear to lose at anything.

“That you did,” Wilder agreed between deep breaths. “I think we should call it a draw, however.”

“Why?” she demanded. “The race parameters were spin, then skate a lap. You can’t change things at the last minute.”

“You’re right.” Wilder crossed his arms as he skated backward and forward, crossing and uncrossing his skates on the ice. “My fragile ego, though…”

She rolled her eyes at him. “I have a feeling your ego is just fine. After all, you did prove that in a straight race, you’d win.”

“I just don’t understand how you figure skaters can spin like that and then still skate in a straight line.”

“It takes practice,” Lexi said.

“Are you planning to stick around Serenity long-term?” Wilder asked, taking her off-guard with the switch of subject.

It wasn’t something she’d thought a lot about. The plan she’d had for her life was gone, and she hadn’t figured out what her new one should be.

Could she be happy coaching kids in a small town like Serenity? Or would she be forever discontent because she couldn’t be involved with the sport at the high level she wanted to be?

She’d already accepted that it was unlikely that anyone with Olympic aspirations would ever hire her. Her past meant she came with a lot of baggage and distractions.

“I haven’t decided yet.” That was at least halfway true, although it made it sound like she had options, which, unfortunately, she didn’t feel she did. “I’m here for now.”

Wilder’s smile widened. “That you are.”

She really didn’t know what to make of Wilder. Most of the men who had been in her life had been very intense. Her dad. Mikhail. Her coach. They’d all been men who focused intently on things and were never lighthearted the way Wilder seemed to be.

Did that mean he didn’t take anything seriously?

Even if she’d wanted to be more relaxed, Lexi had no idea how to be that way. All her life, everything was serious. Her fitness. Her health. Her diet. Her outfits. Her skating. She would have never done with Mik what she’d just done with Wilder.

She and Mik had never been ones to skate to lighthearted music. The closest they’d come was the program they’d been preparing for the Olympics. It had been a selection of songs that, at the time, Lexi had thought represented their romance.

They’d had programs that focused on love before, but they’d been dramatic and often had tragic endings. That new program had been the one where it would have ended happily for once. Only she wasn’t destined for her happily ever after. On the ice or off.

Wilder stopped his figure eights at the point closest to Lexi. “Hope we didn’t overwhelm you today with all of us showing up.”

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